pretty pleased with our first 2 picks.nice conjunction of best player available and organizational need

Stastny the best 2-way center available which is why he is my preferenceaves beat writer thinks he either stays or signs with Blues, although every team in the central has expressed interest.don't see how the hawks could clear enough cap space to afford him.

pretty pleased with our first 2 picks.nice conjunction of best player available and organizational need

Stastny the best 2-way center available which is why he is my preferenceaves beat writer thinks he either stays or signs with Blues, although every team in the central has expressed interest.don't see how the hawks could clear enough cap space to afford him.

Yea, I don't see the Hawks being able to swing it. I think it's mostly about driving up the price for us. Besides, every team would be silly not to at least look at him. It doesn't mean any of them are close.

If you're St. Louis, you can't afford to be too conservative here, IMO. If you want to win, you need Stastny or Spezza (I agree about being more comfortable with Stastny over Spezza if I had the choice). If we go into next season without one of them, that's when I'm going to start turning on Army. He knows what we need. I've defended him up to this point, but missing these guys would be hard to forgive unless those teams are just trying to fleece us big time.

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I'd take Barbashev if he's still there MacInnis will still be there at 52.

The more I read the more I like that pick. I really like that Barbashev has played two seasons in the QMJHL. Tells me he's serious about playing in North America and takes a little of the fear of the "Russian factor" out of the play. Obviously we have another pretty decent young Russian forward on the team so he would have someone to talk to and bring him into the team.

Ville Husso, the guy that the Blues took with the pick from the Leafs, is an 18-year-old Finnish goalie who was rated the #1 European goalie, had a 1.99 GAA, and .923 SV% in the Finnish Elite League this year.

I think the Blues did really well in the first 4 rounds and being a week draft. That's saying something considering most draft picks that make the NHL come mainly from the first 2 rounds with the exceptions being goalies of course. Our first 3 picks should play in the NHL within the next 2-3 years. I think our 3rd-4ths have a small chance to make it in 4-5 years.

Round #1-21st Robby Fabbri

Elite Prospects wrote:

Fabbri is a below average sized buzz saw who works hard and has some of the best feet in the entire draft. He uses his speed and mobility to be shifty and elusive but is also willing to play physical. His hands are skilled, he shows some creativity on the ice and has a quick shot release.

Round #2-33rd Ivan Barbashev

Elite Prospects wrote:

Barbashev is a skilled playmaking winger with impressive vision and passing ability. He thrives in a high-paced offense. Has a good, hard shot and isn't transparent about making a pass or firing it on net. Has dynamic talent but inconsistent in his efforts.

Round #2-52nd Maxim Letunov

Elite Prospects wrote:

Letunov is a skilled forward with slick hands, a hard wrist shot who makes crisp, accurate passes. Uses his frame to protect the puck but can get pushed off by stronger opponents. Flashes some gritty play and willingness to play a defensive responsible game but does not do so consistently. Has to add substantial strength and correct some issues in his mobility.

I'd take Barbashev if he's still there MacInnis will still be there at 52.

The more I read the more I like that pick. I really like that Barbashev has played two seasons in the QMJHL. Tells me he's serious about playing in North America and takes a little of the fear of the "Russian factor" out of the play. Obviously we have another pretty decent young Russian forward on the team so he would have someone to talk to and bring him into the team.

Like it a lot.

Yea, plus he said in his interview (the one on stlouisblues.com) that he doesn't want to play in the KHL. I guess he was teammates with Jaskin a few years ago as well. That plus Tarasenko and I'd say he's got more than enough reasons to stay here.

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I'm not going to pretend that I know a lot about the guys we drafted. I don't. I've never even really heard of any of them until a few days ago when I started looking at mock drafts and reading a little about them. I'm certainly no expert, but it seems like we did fairly well. I'm especially happy with our first two picks. I haven't read much that is negative about either of them. The only thing is the size of Fabbri, but all I can say is that size never stopped Sobotka. The fact that he compared himself to Sobotka is pretty cool too, I thought. I'll take a second Sobotka any day, especially if he chips in a few more goals.

We didn't do a whole lot to improve our immediate future, especially on offense, but hopefully that will be coming soon....hopefully....

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If you're St. Louis, you can't afford to be too conservative here, IMO. If you want to win, you need Stastny or Spezza (I agree about being more comfortable with Stastny over Spezza if I had the choice). If we go into next season without one of them, that's when I'm going to start turning on Army. He knows what we need. I've defended him up to this point, but missing these guys would be hard to forgive unless those teams are just trying to fleece us big time.

This offseason is tee'd up for Armie. The top offensive UFA is from St Louis. A PPG center has openly asked for a trade and has stated a preference to come to St Louis. Its like the hockey gods are lobbing batting practice fastballs over the heart of the plate. If Armstrong can't land one of these two guys................

If you're St. Louis, you can't afford to be too conservative here, IMO. If you want to win, you need Stastny or Spezza (I agree about being more comfortable with Stastny over Spezza if I had the choice). If we go into next season without one of them, that's when I'm going to start turning on Army. He knows what we need. I've defended him up to this point, but missing these guys would be hard to forgive unless those teams are just trying to fleece us big time.

This offseason is tee'd up for Armie. The top offensive UFA is from St Louis. A PPG center has openly asked for a trade and has stated a preference to come to St Louis. Its like the hockey gods are lobbing batting practice fastballs over the heart of the plate. If Armstrong can't land one of these two guys................

Ah yes, but even if we GET BOTH, people here will be all chicken little if we lose two games in a row

If you're St. Louis, you can't afford to be too conservative here, IMO. If you want to win, you need Stastny or Spezza (I agree about being more comfortable with Stastny over Spezza if I had the choice). If we go into next season without one of them, that's when I'm going to start turning on Army. He knows what we need. I've defended him up to this point, but missing these guys would be hard to forgive unless those teams are just trying to fleece us big time.

This offseason is tee'd up for Armie. The top offensive UFA is from St Louis. A PPG center has openly asked for a trade and has stated a preference to come to St Louis. Its like the hockey gods are lobbing batting practice fastballs over the heart of the plate. If Armstrong can't land one of these two guys................

Ah yes, but even if we GET BOTH, people here will be all chicken little if we lose two games in a row

Yup.

"Why did Army make these deals?! I mean, I wanted him to do it, but what an idiot that he actually went and did it! We're screwed! It's November and there is no way this team wins the Cup because I'm going to lump them in with the other 45 plus Blues teams that has nothing to do with this one! And Elliott and Allen aren't getting the job done. Why did we trade Halak? Why didn't we re-sign Miller? Army is TEH WORST!!!!"

Stastny the best 2-way center available which is why he is my preferenceaves beat writer thinks he either stays or signs with Blues, although every team in the central has expressed interest.don't see how the hawks could clear enough cap space to afford him.

Yea, I don't see the Hawks being able to swing it. I think it's mostly about driving up the price for us. Besides, every team would be silly not to at least look at him. It doesn't mean any of them are close.

the score reported the Bollig deal yesterday (seemingly not tongue in cheek) as freeing up plenty of cap space to sign Toews and Kane to long term extensions.uh, not really. Hawks are still technically over the cap (they have $700K of space with 21 players under contract-even promoting two rookies would put them over). So unless they'd rather have Stastny than one of those guys, don't see how they are really in the hunt.

This offseason is tee'd up for Armie. The top offensive UFA is from St Louis. A PPG center has openly asked for a trade and has stated a preference to come to St Louis. Its like the hockey gods are lobbing batting practice fastballs over the heart of the plate. If Armstrong can't land one of these two guys................

Ah yes, but even if we GET BOTH, people here will be all chicken little if we lose two games in a row

we really don't need both, just one. but we gotta get one. I won't chicken little if Armstrong comes through,unless the 2 games you are referring to are games 3 and 4 of the first round playoff series.

I just wonder how Armie's apologists will spin things if Stastny ends up in Minnesota and Spezza lands in Dallas

This offseason is tee'd up for Armie. The top offensive UFA is from St Louis. A PPG center has openly asked for a trade and has stated a preference to come to St Louis. Its like the hockey gods are lobbing batting practice fastballs over the heart of the plate. If Armstrong can't land one of these two guys................

Ah yes, but even if we GET BOTH, people here will be all chicken little if we lose two games in a row

we really don't need both, just one. but we gotta get one. I won't chicken little if Armstrong comes through,unless the 2 games you are referring to are games 3 and 4 of the first round playoff series.

I just wonder how Armie's apologists will spin things if Stastny ends up in Minnesota and Spezza lands in Dallas

Last I heard Dallas was on Spezza's no-no list as well.

I already said I've supported Army all the way, even with his move for Miller last season, but I won't have any excuses for him if he doesn't address the #1 center problem.

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This offseason is tee'd up for Armie. The top offensive UFA is from St Louis. A PPG center has openly asked for a trade and has stated a preference to come to St Louis. Its like the hockey gods are lobbing batting practice fastballs over the heart of the plate. If Armstrong can't land one of these two guys................

Ah yes, but even if we GET BOTH, people here will be all chicken little if we lose two games in a row

we really don't need both, just one. but we gotta get one. I won't chicken little if Armstrong comes through,unless the 2 games you are referring to are games 3 and 4 of the first round playoff series.

I just wonder how Armie's apologists will spin things if Stastny ends up in Minnesota and Spezza lands in Dallas

Last I heard Dallas was on Spezza's no-no list as well.

I already said I've supported Army all the way, even with his move for Miller last season, but I won't have any excuses for him if he doesn't address the #1 center problem.

FINE ILL DO IT

I've always played D, and I haven't played in literally 15 years, but I'll suit up and put us over the top..

This offseason is tee'd up for Armie. The top offensive UFA is from St Louis. A PPG center has openly asked for a trade and has stated a preference to come to St Louis. Its like the hockey gods are lobbing batting practice fastballs over the heart of the plate. If Armstrong can't land one of these two guys................

Ah yes, but even if we GET BOTH, people here will be all chicken little if we lose two games in a row

we really don't need both, just one. but we gotta get one. I won't chicken little if Armstrong comes through,unless the 2 games you are referring to are games 3 and 4 of the first round playoff series.

I just wonder how Armie's apologists will spin things if Stastny ends up in Minnesota and Spezza lands in Dallas

I don't think anybody would just blindly give him a pass. If he doesn't address center adequately this off season, he'll need a damn good reason for it. But, I'm not going to blindly criticize him for not getting the 2 players we all want, especially before they have gotten a new team. If we don't get either of them and either of them could have been reasonably had, I'll be very disappointed in Army.

This offseason is tee'd up for Armie. The top offensive UFA is from St Louis. A PPG center has openly asked for a trade and has stated a preference to come to St Louis. Its like the hockey gods are lobbing batting practice fastballs over the heart of the plate. If Armstrong can't land one of these two guys................

Ah yes, but even if we GET BOTH, people here will be all chicken little if we lose two games in a row

we really don't need both, just one. but we gotta get one. I won't chicken little if Armstrong comes through,unless the 2 games you are referring to are games 3 and 4 of the first round playoff series.

I just wonder how Armie's apologists will spin things if Stastny ends up in Minnesota and Spezza lands in Dallas

Last I heard Dallas was on Spezza's no-no list as well.

I already said I've supported Army all the way, even with his move for Miller last season, but I won't have any excuses for him if he doesn't address the #1 center problem.

FINE ILL DO IT

I've always played D, and I haven't played in literally 15 years, but I'll suit up and put us over the top..

Yea, but can you play on both ends or do you just "Ovechkin" it out there.

_________________2014-2015 Official LGB Sponsor of T.J. Oshie2013-2014 Official LGB Sponsor of Kevin Shattenkirk2012-2013 Official LGB Sponsor of Ryan Reaves2011-2012 Official LGB Sponsor of Vladimir Tarasenko2010-2011 Official LGB Sponsor of Vladimir Tarasenko

This offseason is tee'd up for Armie. The top offensive UFA is from St Louis. A PPG center has openly asked for a trade and has stated a preference to come to St Louis. Its like the hockey gods are lobbing batting practice fastballs over the heart of the plate. If Armstrong can't land one of these two guys................

Ah yes, but even if we GET BOTH, people here will be all chicken little if we lose two games in a row

we really don't need both, just one. but we gotta get one. I won't chicken little if Armstrong comes through,unless the 2 games you are referring to are games 3 and 4 of the first round playoff series.

I just wonder how Armie's apologists will spin things if Stastny ends up in Minnesota and Spezza lands in Dallas

Last I heard Dallas was on Spezza's no-no list as well.

I already said I've supported Army all the way, even with his move for Miller last season, but I won't have any excuses for him if he doesn't address the #1 center problem.

FINE ILL DO IT

I've always played D, and I haven't played in literally 15 years, but I'll suit up and put us over the top..

Yea, but can you play on both ends or do you just "Ovechkin" it out there.

WHAT A DRAFT!!! The Blues did VERY well! I tip my cap to Bill Armstrong, and Doug, too. This may well turn out to be their best draft ever (or, at least third to their Federko-Sutter-Liut and Schwartz-Tarasenko drafts.

Having Robby Fabbri fall to them was great luck. I know The Blues like size a LOT. But, they just couldn't pass up his skill, hockey instincts and tenaciousness. He'll be a star in The NHL. He should be another Doug Gilmore.

Having Barbashev fall to them was another great bit of luck. He should be a great power forward with a lot of skill (another NHL star).

They picked a project with their late 2nd rounder, in The Russian, Letunov. But, he looks like he was a great "sleeper pick". He fell a long way, not only because he's Russian, but also because he's really skinny and needs to get a LOT stronger and heavier. But, he's 6 ft. 2, and got such great skills, that he's likely to be a great player if he fills out right and builds up his strength (which should happen). In a way, he's a good reach at that point just BECAUSE he won't be NHL-ready in 2015-16 like Fabbri, and probably Barbashev. It would be better for The Blues if he joins one or two years later, so they won't have too many contracts coming up at the same time, to try and fit under the cap. He'll also not have to worry about not having any Russian-speaking "running buddies", with Tarasenko and likely Barbashev already on the team before he joins.

The Blues also did very well with their 3rd Rounder, Jake Walman, getting a solid 2-way defenceman, with a good shot, who was rated as high as #47 on a couple respected lists. And nabbing the highest-rated European goalie, Vielle Husso, with their extra 4th Rounder (from the Polak trade) was a great pick, as well. A few of their later round picks look very good, as well. Their regular 4th Rounder, Austin Poganski, looks like a potential power forward, or else, at least a decent 3rd Line scorer with some grit. Jaedon Descheneau scored a lot in juniors, but dropped due to his relatively small size. But, The Blues realise that skill sometimes trumps size in today's fast NHL game. He could turn into another pretty good pick.

I'm very happy with this draft. I think that The Blues are doing their "homework" even more now, under Bill Armstrong, than they were under Jarmo (who picked a lot of Euros) but didn't seem to know that several of them never intended to come to North America. Whereas, almost all of the Euro players chosen under Bill Armstrong's scouting regime have already shown plenty of interest in playing in North America (many at the juniors level).

Last edited by Robb_K on Tue Jul 08, 2014 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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